Go down to the cellar of the Grand Hotel Kronenhof in Pontresina and you will see material proof of St Moritz’s key role in the history of skiing. The charming mediaeval village in the Graubaden region, just a few, Bernina Pass ski miles away from St Moritz’s Gucci and Chanel-clad shlosstentation, is quiet, smart and positively rude with mountain air health.
It’s also been doing winter sports for over 100 years; tourists started coming here in the 1850s to take in the restorative, grand cru air and wander the cute and windy streets with their distinctive “sgraffito” plastered houses, the Kronenhof’s opening in 1848 providing an idyllic playground for mitteleuropa’s belle epoque in the 1900s.
